I’m Surprised To See Ghana’s Economy Grew By 5.9% – Atik Mohammed
Atik Mohammed, a socio-political analyst and an economist, is happy to hear Ghana’s economy significantly grew last year.
Ghana’s economy is said to have grown by 5.7 percent in 2024.
This is driven by a strong industrial performance amid the country’s economic reforms backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to the Ghana Statistical Service.
Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, disclosed this at a press briefing.
“Despite the slower growth rate of 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, the industrial sector led Ghana’s economic growth in 2024 with a growth rate of 7.1 percent, driven by the construction as well as the mining and quarrying sub-sectors”, he said.
This growth rate was also highlighted in the 2025 budget presented by the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson in Parliament on Tuesday, March 11, nonetheless the Minister attributed the growth mainly to illegal small-scale mining, also known as galamsey.
But the Ghana Statistical Service has clarified that the 5.7 percent economic growth saying this was rather primarily driven by data and SMS usage under the Information and Communication Services sector, hence contradicting Dr. Ato Forson’s claim.
“Of the 5.7% growth rate that we saw in GDP, the services sector contributed the most, 2.51% of the 5.7% GDP growth rate that we saw for 2024.
“Followed by the industry sector, which mining and quarrying is part of, which gold is part of, contributed to 2.24% of that.
“Within the service sector, what is driving the service sector is information and communication. And in this case, it’s data and SMS messages that we are using”, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim emphasized that the services sector contributed the most to the overall economic growth.
Speaking on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” show, Atik welcomed the growth rate stating “I was surprised to see the economy grow by that much by about 5.9 or so percent. It tells you that one of the sectors in the real economy actually did very well”.
He also urged the nation to sway away from the culture where government borrows in electioneering year leaving the burden of payment on the next administration.
“I’d like to see us get to a point whereby no matter we being in an election year or not, we would always try to keep government’s expenditure within reasonable limits so that when the election is done, whoever is coming would not have to deal with a very huge primary deficit and would have to also deal with the fact that the government borrowed.”
Source: Ghmessenger.com
